In a conventional method for constructing an MLM organization, the organization is expanded by placement of a member, personally receiving referral from a referrer, in a position immediately below the referrer. However, this method has a drawback in that, if there is a member who is unable to make a referral, further downline of the member cannot be created and the organization fails to grow.
Meanwhile, a bi-directional MLM organization construction scheme, referred to as a distribution-of-profits-type binary system, limits the referrer lines that are formed in the downline of a member to two legs. For example, in the system, if a first member recruits two other people who will become members, and then a third referrer is recruited, the third referrer is placed below the two members already registered in the downline (Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open (kokai) No. 2002-259784, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open (kokai) No. 2002-259786, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open (kokai) No. 2002-259787, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open (kokai) No. 2002-329052, and Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open (kokai) No. 2003-122883).
In the above-mentioned prior art system, if the first member fails to recruit a potential member, a referrer from an upper level automatically descends to his/her downline and is placed there. Therefore, this system has a drawback in that, as the organization grows larger, the two-leg downlines multiply and expand in a lateral direction in the lower levels of the organization.
To overcome the problems involved in the foregoing binary system, an improved two-leg multilevel marketing organization construction system has previously been proposed. According to the proposed system, legs of a first direction, among the legs extending directly from the position of an upper level member in right and left directions, are referred to as first and second referrer legs of the upper level member. Legs of a second direction are short legs, and in such a short leg, a person who is recruited by a member positioned in the level directly above a certain position of the short leg is placed in that position of the short leg. In a position of the first leg and a position of the second leg that form a position pair in the same level of the two referrer legs of the upper level member, persons recruited by any member belonging to the first or second referrer leg are automatically placed.
The prior art system will further be described with reference to FIG. 4. A left leg starting from the immediate left side of the position of an upper level member A and extending in the lower left direction is referred to as a first referrer leg 5. Similarly, a left leg starting from the immediate right side of the position of the upper level member A and extending in the lower left direction is referred to as a second referrer leg 6. Right legs starting from respective positions in the first referrer leg 5 and the second referrer leg 6 are referred to as short legs 7, and a new member recruited by the member positioned in a level directly above a certain position of a short leg 7, is placed in that position of the short leg 7.
In each position of the first referrer leg 5 and the second referrer leg 6, a new member recruited by a member of a corresponding referrer line is placed. The placement sequence may be such that the first acquired member recruited by the upper level member A is placed in a position in the first referrer leg 5, the second acquired member recruited by the member A is placed in a position in the second referrer leg 6, and then, the third acquired member recruited by the member A is placed in a position in the first referrer leg 5. In this way, new members recruited by a member of each referrer leg are placed in positions belonging either to the first referrer leg 5 or the second referrer leg 6. A bonus is generated when a member is placed in a position that forms a pair with a corresponding position in the same level of the first referrer leg 5 and the second referrer leg 6 of the upper level member A.
When a member is placed in one position in the lowest level of the first referrer leg 5 or the second referrer leg 6 and a corresponding position with which the position is to be paired is vacant, the next acquired person recruited by the upper level member A is preferentially placed in the vacant position, and the bonus is generated.
The foregoing will be described in detail with reference to FIG. 4. First, B, followed by C, is acquired through referral from the upper level member A. In this case, B is placed in a position that is immediate lower left to the position of A; C is placed in a position that is immediate lower right to the position of A; and the first bonus is generated. At the same time, as the left leg of B, a first referrer leg 5 of the upper level member A is formed; and as the left leg of C, a second referrer leg 6 of the upper level member A is formed. According to this placement scheme, D recruited by a member—for example, A or B—belonging to the first referrer leg 5 is placed in a position that is immediate lower left to B; and E recruited by a member—for example, A or C—belonging to the second referrer leg 6 is automatically placed in a position that is immediate lower left to C. At this point, the second bonus is generated. Likewise, G and H, and then K and L, recruited successively by their upper level members, are placed in two mutually corresponding positions in the same level of the first referrer leg 5 and the second referrer leg 6, and bonuses are respectively generated.
Therefore, with the above-described system, when the organization expands, the first referrer leg 5 and the second referrer leg 6 as shown in, for example, FIG. 4, extend downward to lower levels. However, unlike the case of the binary system described above, the downline of the two legs do not expand laterally.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open (kokai) No. 2002-259784, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open (kokai) No. 2002-259786, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open (kokai) No. 2002-259787, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open (kokai) No. 2002-329052, and Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open (kokai) No. 2003-122883.
The above system is configured such that, after a member is placed in one of the two positions forming a position pair in the same level of the first referrer leg 5 and the second referrer leg 6 and subsequently a new person recruited as a member is placed to fill the counterpart position, a bonus is generated. Thus, with this prior art system, members who put in effort to recruit and enroll many people as new members and members who do not are not differentiated in a related organization construction program.
In other words, with the prior art system, members who put in effort can merely expect an additional type increase in their earnings calculated according to a predetermined formula, but cannot expect a rapid increase in earnings for their efforts.